The British government has signalled its willingness for a major dispute with the European Union to protect stability in Northern Ireland and the 1998 peace deal.
In possibly the most important post-Brexit speech to date, Lord David Frost explicitly declared that the British government would use the Article 16 clause to suspend the Northern Ireland protocol to protect peace and prosperity in the province.
In a specially arranged address, the Cabinet Office minister said London would put the Good Friday Agreement before the trade arrangement that enabled Brexit. That means Britain would be ruthless in its fight to overturn what it considers unfair elements of the deal agreed to with the European Union in 2019.
London would not tolerate the European Court of Justice as the place to decide trade disputes over the treaty, he said.
Lord Frost’s central argument was that the protocol had to be reformed to avoid potential civil unrest from the unravelling of the Good Friday Agreement that brought the Troubles in Northern Ireland to an end.
“We have a real opportunity to put in place a new arrangement to defuse the political crisis that is brewing, both in Northern Ireland and between us,” he said in the speech, given in Lisbon, Portugal.
The Northern Ireland protocol was introduced to avoid a hard border with customs controls between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. However, it essentially moved the border to the Irish Sea inhibiting imports from mainland Britain of many goods, including sausages.
Lord Frost said this invisible frontier was disrupting ordinary people’s lives, damaging businesses and “causing serious turbulence”.
The fundamental difficulty was that the UK had to “run a full-scale external boundary of the EU through the centre of our country, to apply EU law without consent in one part of it”, he said.
Goods should be allowed to circulate freely between Northern Ireland and the rest of Britain, “something that every other country in the world takes for granted”, he said.
Northern Ireland's unionist community views the protocol as a severe challenge to its unity with the rest of the UK and the matter has sparked some outbreaks of violence.
“We now face a very serious situation, it has completely lost consent in one community in Northern Ireland,” Lord Frost said, referring to the unionists. “It is not doing the thing it was set up to do, to protect the Belfast Good Friday Agreement, in fact it is doing the opposite. It has to change.”
He suggested that the protocol had been used malignly by the EU to reverse the Brexit vote or “keep us closely aligned with the EU” and that it was clearly “a moment of EU overreach”.
“The Northern Ireland protocol is the biggest source of mistrust between us and for all kinds of reasons, we need to fix this problem.”
The EU also took a heavy broadside from Lord Frost on its actions over the last year in which, he said, it arbitrarily banned the Oxford-AstraZeneca Covid-19 vaccine, imposed a “needless ban” on fish imports and France threatened to cut energy supplies. Britain had then faced “generalised accusations that we can't be trusted”, he said.
He argued that this undermined the 2016 Brexit vote itself, in which 52 per cent of British voters opted to leave the EU.
“To suggest there is something wrong in people deciding things for themselves is somewhat disreputable, maybe even disrespectful to the British people in our democracy,” Lord Frost said.
For the EU to say that the protocol, which was “drawn up in such haste” could not be improved upon, would be a “historical misjudgement”.
“It is our responsibility to safeguard peace and response and prosperity in Northern Ireland. That may include using Article 16 if necessary,” he said.
He suggested that an improved deal would bring about “a new age of co-operation in which the word 'protocol' never appears”.
The speech represents a serious challenge to the EU leadership and to its unity, with some countries eager for the protocol issue to be resolved while others, such as France, might veto any compromise.
The coming weeks of negotiation could be crucial in setting the terms for the Anglo-EU relationship for years to come.
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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Dr Afridi's warning signs of digital addiction
Spending an excessive amount of time on the phone.
Neglecting personal, social, or academic responsibilities.
Losing interest in other activities or hobbies that were once enjoyed.
Having withdrawal symptoms like feeling anxious, restless, or upset when the technology is not available.
Experiencing sleep disturbances or changes in sleep patterns.
What are the guidelines?
Under 18 months: Avoid screen time altogether, except for video chatting with family.
Aged 18-24 months: If screens are introduced, it should be high-quality content watched with a caregiver to help the child understand what they are seeing.
Aged 2-5 years: Limit to one-hour per day of high-quality programming, with co-viewing whenever possible.
Aged 6-12 years: Set consistent limits on screen time to ensure it does not interfere with sleep, physical activity, or social interactions.
Teenagers: Encourage a balanced approach – screens should not replace sleep, exercise, or face-to-face socialisation.
Source: American Paediatric Association
SPECS
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, first leg
Bayern Munich v Real Madrid
When: April 25, 10.45pm kick-off (UAE)
Where: Allianz Arena, Munich
Live: BeIN Sports HD
Second leg: May 1, Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
The specs: 2019 BMW i8 Roadster
Price, base: Dh708,750
Engine: 1.5L three-cylinder petrol, plus 11.6 kWh lithium-ion battery
Transmission: Six-speed automatic
Power: 374hp (total)
Torque: 570Nm (total)
Fuel economy, combined: 2.0L / 100km
THE SIXTH SENSE
Starring: Bruce Willis, Toni Collette, Hayley Joel Osment
Director: M. Night Shyamalan
Rating: 5/5
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
The specs: 2018 Jaguar E-Pace First Edition
Price, base / as tested: Dh186,480 / Dh252,735
Engine: 2.0-litre four-cylinder
Power: 246hp @ 5,500rpm
Torque: 365Nm @ 1,200rpm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 7.7L / 100km
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%3Cp%3ESix%20of%20the%20eight%20fast%20bowlers%20used%20in%20the%20ILT20%20match%20between%20Desert%20Vipers%20and%20MI%20Emirates%20were%20left-handed.%20So%2075%20per%20cent%20of%20those%20involved.%0D%3Cbr%3EAnd%20that%20despite%20the%20fact%2010-12%20per%20cent%20of%20the%20world%E2%80%99s%20population%20is%20said%20to%20be%20left-handed.%0D%3Cbr%3EIt%20is%20an%20extension%20of%20a%20trend%20which%20has%20seen%20left-arm%20pacers%20become%20highly%20valued%20%E2%80%93%20and%20over-represented%2C%20relative%20to%20other%20formats%20%E2%80%93%20in%20T20%20cricket.%0D%3Cbr%3EIt%20is%20all%20to%20do%20with%20the%20fact%20most%20batters%20are%20naturally%20attuned%20to%20the%20angles%20created%20by%20right-arm%20bowlers%2C%20given%20that%20is%20generally%20what%20they%20grow%20up%20facing%20more%20of.%0D%3Cbr%3EIn%20their%20book%2C%20%3Cem%3EHitting%20Against%20the%20Spin%3C%2Fem%3E%2C%20cricket%20data%20analysts%20Nathan%20Leamon%20and%20Ben%20Jones%20suggest%20the%20advantage%20for%20a%20left-arm%20pace%20bowler%20in%20T20%20is%20amplified%20because%20of%20the%20obligation%20on%20the%20batter%20to%20attack.%0D%3Cbr%3E%E2%80%9CThe%20more%20attacking%20the%20batsman%2C%20the%20more%20reliant%20they%20are%20on%20anticipation%2C%E2%80%9D%20they%20write.%0D%3Cbr%3E%E2%80%9CThis%20effectively%20increases%20the%20time%20pressure%20on%20the%20batsman%2C%20so%20increases%20the%20reliance%20on%20anticipation%2C%20and%20therefore%20increases%20the%20left-arm%20bowler%E2%80%99s%20advantage.%E2%80%9D%0D%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
How much of your income do you need to save?
The more you save, the sooner you can retire. Tuan Phan, a board member of SimplyFI.com, says if you save just 5 per cent of your salary, you can expect to work for another 66 years before you are able to retire without too large a drop in income.
In other words, you will not save enough to retire comfortably. If you save 15 per cent, you can forward to another 43 working years. Up that to 40 per cent of your income, and your remaining working life drops to just 22 years. (see table)
Obviously, this is only a rough guide. How much you save will depend on variables, not least your salary and how much you already have in your pension pot. But it shows what you need to do to achieve financial independence.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Founders: Abdulmajeed Alsukhan, Turki Bin Zarah and Abdulmohsen Albabtain.
Based: Riyadh
Offices: UAE, Vietnam and Germany
Founded: September, 2020
Number of employees: 70
Sector: FinTech, online payment solutions
Funding to date: $116m in two funding rounds
Investors: Checkout.com, Impact46, Vision Ventures, Wealth Well, Seedra, Khwarizmi, Hala Ventures, Nama Ventures and family offices
